The biogeography of Streptomyces in New Zealand enabled by high-throughput sequencing of genus-specific rpoB amplicons

We evaluated Streptomyces biogeography in soils along a 1,200 km latitudinal transect across New Zealand (NZ). Streptomyces diversity was examined using high-throughput sequencing of rpoB amplicons generated with a Streptomyces specific primer set. We detected 1,287 StreptomycesrpoB operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 159 ± 92 (average ± s.d.) rpoB OTUs per site. Only 12% (n = 149) of these OTUs matched rpoB sequences from cultured specimens (99% nucleotide identity cutoff). Streptomyces phylogenetic diversity (Faith′s PD) was correlated with soil pH, mean annual temperature, and plant community richness (Spearman′s r: 0.77, 0.64, and -0.79, respectively; p